No need to look for health advice on social networks to be overwhelmed with tips and confidences of all kinds. Sponsored or not, these contents that want us well explode to the point of virality, thanks to the influencers who have sniffed out our inexhaustible craze for these contents with intimate contours. However, by their number as much as by their tone, these end up lowering our critical barriers, giving free rein to a false sense of security that is the nightmare of our public health.
There is much talk about the damage that alternative facts inflict on our democracy. We should denounce with the same energy the effects of the multiplication and especially the trivialization of knowingly embellished, incomplete, even mendacious speeches, whose approximations are more easily tolerated when they supposedly target our “well-being”. Take the example of homemade sunscreens promoted by a worrying number of small and large influencers, whose speeches flourish again as soon as summer shows its nose.
It’s the same old story every time. Well-meaning people use studies—generally obscure and poorly understood—as a pretext to point the finger at certain components of approved sunscreens that they consider toxic, if not carcinogenic. On their social networks, these people then give their recipes for homemade creams made with zinc, coconut oil, beeswax or shea butter, themselves inspired by other studies—generally just as obscure and poorly understood.
Of course, science can be nuanced, it can even hold back a few doubts. The fact remains that it can say one thing and its opposite is not true. Alarmed by the popularity of certain irresponsible speeches, Health Canada issued a very clear public notice on Friday: “Do not use homemade sunscreen.” Period. It also reminds us that in 2018, Health Canada conducted a major review of the safety of sunscreens, which confirmed beyond any doubt that the benefits of regular use of sunscreen in reducing the risk of skin cancer far outweigh any risk of skin reactions.
Anticipating the resurgence of the wave, the Ordre des chimistes du Québec also stepped up last month to denounce the spread of “erroneous and misleading information” about sunscreens on social media. It then warned Quebecers against homemade solutions that do not fulfill their promises when transposed into real life: sweat, water, movement, friction, light and heat are the key.
These messages have little and bad impact. As proof, Olivier Bernard, aka the Pharmachien, has been holding the same informed discourse for almost ten years. “Chemophobia”, especially when it takes on the soft features of our favorite influencers, is growing back like couch grass. It’s a bit the same for these passing food craze defended without real foundations, these beauty routines reinvented on wind, or even these increasingly invasive aesthetic interventions advocated by an army of influencers that we are on first-name terms with.
Our reporters Jasmine Legendre and Laurence Thibault recently told the heartbreaking story of Florence McConnell, who flew to Morocco where she was promised cheap liposuction. The family of the 26-year-old woman, who died tragically as a result of the operation, spoke out to denounce the trivialization of plastic surgery and medical tourism by influencers here and abroad who promote it very openly, often by example, without any complexes.
The challenge posed by the discourse of health influencers is immense, with its intertwined social, economic, technological and legal ramifications. It is a public health issue, certainly, but it is also one of education, legislation and control of algorithms.
One avenue to consider is to fight fire with fire, by burying the growing medical misinformation under a wave of verified scientific content, energized by speeches, tables and figures that strike the imagination. Studies have shown that specialists who use anecdotes or real-life cases to defend a principle on social networks play on the same terrain as the confidences of influencers, which increases their strike force tenfold. We must give ourselves more means to lead this kind of counter-offensive.
Above all, we must have the courage to say “enough is enough” to influencers who overstep the mark, as France has done. Since last year, a law has prohibited them from promoting any acts, behaviors or products that go against public health precepts, such as the open promotion of controversial therapies or supplements, nicotine products or beauty treatments. We are certainly ripe for a similar legislative tightening here.